Mystery debris causes keel scare in Fastnet

Aug 12, 2009

A sudden jolt and a rush of air in the keel trunk triggered a moment of panic aboard Dee Cafari's yacht Aviva. But with the keel still intact, backing the boat down seemed to clear whatever caused the collision, and the crew continued on their 110 mile run to the Scilly Isles.

From BYM News:

Meanwhile on deck, cool calm Brian suggested we sock the spinnaker and get the boat going in reverse, so anything wrapped round our keel could get free and float away. A few minutes of struggling with huge acres of sail cloth and we were moving backwards, far from ideal but the guys saw something float free and before we knew it all was well and we were back up to speed with all guns blazing and no nasty noises.

It just goes to show how much rubbish there is in our oceans and also how some rational thinking and a small sacrifice can reaps huge rewards. Scilly Isles, here we come!!